Opinion - News Analysis   

War ends but not Lebanon's misery

Atul Aneja

Unexploded ordnance and bombed out power stations make life miserable.

AFTER ENDURING 34 days of displacement, residents of southern Lebanon have begun returning to their devastated homes. But the area between the border with Israel and the Litani river, where fighting raged for more than a month, is far from secure. Unexploded ordnance litters the fields and roads and farmers hesitate to step out for work.

The worst are the bomblets from cluster bombs. Nearly a quarter of the bomblets dropped over the region are `live' and can explode on contact. One estimate put their number at 100,000.

Israel made extensive use of cluster bombs, especially during the final phase of the war. According to Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, "What's shocking and I would say, to me, completely immoral, is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we really knew there would be an end of this [war]." In an implicit criticism of Israel, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "Those kinds of weapons shouldn't be used in civilian and populated areas."

Mr. Egeland estimates that nearly 2,50,000 residents — or nearly 33 per cent of the war-displaced in Lebanon — cannot return to their homes, as they are either destroyed or unexploded ordnance poses a threat.

Restoration of electricity in southern Lebanon has become a top priority. During the conflict, Israel's air attacks targeted power stations and transformers, severely disrupting electricity distribution.

One of the worst affected was the town of Bint Jbeil — 32 of its 35 transformers were destroyed. Now nearly 90 per cent of Lebanon's southern residents remain without power.

Without electricity, water shortages are acute. So far, international aid agencies have been supplying bottled water and collapsible storage tanks. This can at best be a temporary arrangement. Electricity is essential to draw water from the tube-wells on which the Lebanese depend.

Besides the Israeli air attack on the Jiyeh power station, 30 kilometers south of Beirut, has caused a major environmental disaster. The strike led to the spillage of 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes of highly toxic fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea, affecting nearly 150 km of the Lebanese coastline.

The slick spread as far as adjoining Syria. The black deposits have smeared Lebanon's famed beaches, and are visible less than 10 minutes drive from downtown Beirut.

The oil slick remained unattended for nearly a month after it was detected. This was because Israel imposed an air and naval blockade, which kept trained workers from the area.

The environmental group Greenpeace has released video footage showing that oil has permeated the seabed in the affected area. Its long-term consequences are now being evaluated.

Besides, the damage to the beaches is bound to hit tourism— one of the major sources of employment in Lebanon.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Style, substance, and character
Transparency in defence procurement
Legitimacy issues in electricity regulation
A souvenir, not an emblem
War ends but not Lebanon's misery
How they love to stereotype Asians
IMF is still the rich world's viceroy
Corrections and clarifications
To sing or not to sing
Teacher and god
On CAS
Irreparable loss

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu